Educated University of Connecticut; MIT. Total EVA Time: 0.82 days. Number of EVAs: 3.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Franklin R. Chang-Díaz (Ph.D.)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born April 5, 1950, in San José, Costa Rica, to the late Mr. Ramón A. Chang-Morales and Mrs. María Eugenia Díaz De Chang. Married to the former Peggy Marguerite Doncaster of Alexandria, Louisiana. Four children. He enjoys music, glider planes, soccer, scuba-diving, hunting, and hiking. His mother resides in Costa Rica.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Colegio De La Salle in San José, Costa Rica, in November 1967, and from Hartford High School in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1969; received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1973 and a doctorate in applied plasma physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977.

SPECIAL HONORS:

Recipient of the University of Connecticut's Outstanding Alumni Award (1980); NASA Space Flight Medal (1986); the Liberty Medal from President Ronald Reagan at the Statue of Liberty Centennial Celebration in New York City (1986); the Medal of Excellence from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (1987); NASA Exceptional Service Medals (1988, 1990, 1993); American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award (1989); NASA Space Flight Medals (1986, 1989, 1992, 1994). Outstanding Technical Contribution Award, Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (1993). Awarded the Cross of the Venezuelan Air Force by President Jaime Lusinchi during the 68th Anniversary of the Venezuelan Air Force in Caracas, Venezuela (1988). Recipient of three Honoris Causa Doctorates: Doctor of Science from the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica; Doctor of Science from the University of Connecticut and Doctor of Law from Babson College. Also Honorary faculty from the College of Engineering of the University of Costa Rica. Honorary Citizenship from the government of Costa Rica (April 1995). This is the highest honor Costa Rica confers to a foreign citizen, making him the first such honoree who was actually born there.

EXPERIENCE:

While attending the University of Connecticut, he also worked as a research assistant in the Physics Department and participated in the design and construction of high energy atomic collision experiments. Following graduation in 1973, he entered graduate school at MIT, becoming heavily involved in the United States' controlled fusion program and doing intensive research in the design and operation of fusion reactors. He obtained his doctorate in the field of applied plasma physics and fusion technology and, in that same year, joined the technical staff of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. His work at Draper was geared strongly toward the design and integration of control systems for fusion reactor concepts and experimental devices, in both inertial and magnetic confinement fusion. In 1979, he developed a novel concept to guide and target fuel pellets in an inertial fusion reactor chamber. More recently he has been engaged in the design of a new concept in rocket propulsion based on magnetically confined high temperature plasmas. As a visiting scientist with the M.I.T. Plasma Fusion Center from October 1983 to December 1993, he led the plasma propulsion program there to develop this technology for future human missions to Mars. In December 1993, Dr. Chang-Díaz was appointed Director of the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center where he continues his research on plasma rockets. He is an Adjunct Professor of Physics at the University of Houston and has presented numerous papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals.

In addition to his main fields of science and engineering, he worked for 2-1/2 years as a house manager in an experimental community residence for de-institutionalizing chronic mental patients, and was heavily involved as an instructor/advisor with a rehabilitation program for hispanic drug abusers in Massachusetts.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in May 1980, Dr. Chang-Díaz became an astronaut in August 1981. While undergoing astronaut training he was also involved in flight software checkout at the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), and participated in the early Space Station design studies. In late 1982 he was designated as support crew for the first Spacelab mission and, in November 1983, served as on orbit capsule communicator (CAPCOM) during that flight. From October 1984 to August 1985 he was leader of the astronaut support team at the Kennedy Space Center. His duties included astronaut support during the processing of the various vehicles and payloads, as well as flight crew support during the final phases of the launch countdown. He has logged over 1,800 hours of flight time, including 1,500 hours in jet aircraft.

Dr. Chang-Díaz was instrumental in implementing closer ties between the astronaut corps and the scientific community. In January 1987, he started the Astronaut Science Colloquium Program and later helped form the Astronaut Science Support Group, which he directed until January 1989.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE:

A veteran of five space flights (STS 61-C in 1986, STS-34 in 1989, STS-46 in 1992, STS-60 in 1994, and STS-75 in 1996), Dr. Chang-Díaz has logged over 1,033 hours in space.

STS 61-C (January 12-18, 1986) which launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on the Space Shuttle Columbia. STS 61-C was a 6-day flight during which Dr. Chang-Díaz participated in the deployment of the SATCOM KU satellite, conducted experiments in astrophysics, and operated the materials processing laboratory MSL-2. Following 96 orbits of the Earth, Columbia and her crew made a successful night landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Mission duration was 146 hours, 3 minutes, 51 seconds.

STS-46 (July 31-August 8, 1992), was an 8-day mission during which crew members deployed the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) satellite, and conducted the first Tethered Satellite System (TSS) test flight. Mission duration was 191 hours, 16 minutes, 7 seconds. Space Shuttle Atlantis and her crew launched and landed at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, after completing 126 orbits of the Earth in 3.35 million miles.

STS-60 (February 3-11, 1994), was the first flight of the Wake Shield Facility (WSF-1), the second flight of the Space Habitation Module-2 (Spacehab-2), and the first joint U.S./Russian Space Shuttle mission on which a Russian Cosmonaut was a crew member. During the 8-day flight, the crew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery conducted a wide variety of biological materials science, earth observation, and life science experiments. STS-60 launched and landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The mission achieved 130 orbits of Earth in 3,439,705 miles.

STS-75 (February 22 to March 9, 1996), was a 15-day mission with principal payloads being the reflight of the Tethered Satellite System (TSS) and the third flight of the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-3). The TSS successfully demonstrated the ability of tethers to produce electricity. The TSS experiment produced a wealth of new information on the electrodynamics of tethers and plasma physics before the tether broke at 19.7 km, just shy of the 20.7 km goal. The crew also worked around the clock performing combustion experiments and research related to USMP-3 microgravity investigations used to improve production of medicines, metal alloys, and semiconductors. The mission was completed in 252 orbits covering 6.5 million miles in 377 hours and 40 minutes.

NASA Group 9 - 1980 Requirement: pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights. Nickname: 19+80 - The two European astronauts in the group were not considered by the Americans to be part of the 'official' group. This led to a scene at graduation. More...

ISS Finally completed in 2010 after a torturous 25-year development and production process, the International Space Station was originally conceived as the staging post for manned exploration of the solar systrem. Instead, it was seemed to be the death knell of manned spaceflight. More...

Mir The Mir space station was the last remnant of the once mighty Soviet space programme. It was built to last only five years, and was to have been composed of modules launched by Proton and Buran/Energia launch vehicles. These modules were derived from those originally designed by Chelomei in the 1960's for the Almaz military station programme. As the Soviet Union collapsed Mir stayed in orbit, but the final modules were years late and could only be completed with American financial assistance. Kept flying over a decade beyond its rated life, Mir proved a source of pride to the Russian people and proved the ability of their cosmonauts and engineers to improvise and keep operations going despite all manner of challenges and mishaps. More...

STS The Space Transportation System (Space Shuttle) was conceived originally as a completely reusable system that would provide cheap, routine access to space and replace all American and civilian military launch vehicles. Crippled by technological overreach, political compromise, and budget limitations, it instead ended up costing more than the expendable rockets it was to have replaced. STS sucked the money out of all other NASA projects for half a century. The military abandoned its use after the Challenger shuttle explosion in the 1980's. More...

ISS Status Report: ISS 02-25 - .
Nation: USA. Related Persons: Bursch; Chang-Diaz; Cockrell; Korzun; Lockhart; Onufrienko; Perrin; Walz; Whitson. Program: ISS. Flight: ISS EO-4. The Expedition 4 crew of the International Space Station spent much of this week preparing for the arrival of Endeavour on STS-111 and their return home. They packed equipment and supplies for return to Earth aboard Endeavour. They also reconfigured and checked out spacesuits and the station's joint airlock in preparation for three spacewalks at the station by Endeavour mission specialists Franklin Chang-Diaz and Philippe Perrin. Additional Details: here....

Bay 4: Mobile Base System (MBS) - 1600 kg. The Mobile Base System was made by MD Robotics of Brampton, Ontario. It was to be attached to the Mobile Transporter and used to mount the SSRMS Canadarm-2 arm and heavy payloads.

Bay 7-12: MPLM FM1 "Leonardo" - 10557 kg. The Leonardo module carried 8 Resupply Stowage Racks and 4 Resupply Stowage Plaftorms, with equipment to be transferred to the station. It also carried two science racks: the MSG (Microgravity Science Glovebox) and Express-3, which would be installed on Destiny. Leonardo, built by Alenia Spazio in Torino, also flew on STS-102 and STS-105.

Bay 13S: Adapter Beam / SMDP - 200 kg. The Service Module Debris Panels (SMDP) package contained 6 panels which would be stowed on PMA-1 until a later spacewalk attached them to the Zvezda module to protect it from space debris hits.

Total: 14622 kg

2002 June 9 - .
15:27 GMT - .

EVA STS-111-1 - .
Crew: Chang-Diaz; Perrin. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.31 days. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Chang-Diaz; Perrin. Program: ISS. Flight: STS-111. The spacewalk was made from the Quest airlock, which was depressurized at around 1522 UTC and the hatch was opened at 1524 UTC. The suits went to battery power at 1527 UTC. The astronauts installed the PGDF grapple fixture on the P6 truss, stowed some space debris shields on the PMA-1 adapter, and prepared the Mobile Base System (MBS) in the Shuttle cargo bay. The hatch was closed at 2234 UTC and the airlock began repressurization at 2242 UTC.

2002 June 11 - .
15:27 GMT - .

EVA STS-111-2 - .
Crew: Chang-Diaz; Perrin. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.21 days. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Chang-Diaz; Perrin. Program: ISS. Flight: STS-111. The MBS had been unberthed sometime around 2220 UTC and docked to the Mobile Transporter at 1304 UTC on June 10. On June 11 at about 1515 UTC the Quest was depressurized again, with Chang-Diaz and Perrin opening the hatch around the same time and going to battery power at 1520 UTC. During this spacewalk the astronauts completed setting up the MBS system. The hatch was closed at 2016 UTC and Quest was repressurized at 2020 UTC.

2002 June 13 - .
15:16 GMT - .

EVA STS-111-3 - .
Crew: Chang-Diaz; Perrin. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.31 days. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Chang-Diaz; Perrin. Program: ISS. Flight: STS-111. The EVA was from the Quest airlock. Depress was at 1512 UTC with hatch open probably at 1514 and battery power at 1516. The astronauts replaced the wrist roll joint on the station's Canadarm-2 SSRMS robot arm; the old joint was stowed in Endeavour's cargo bay for return to Earth. The hatch was closed at 2229 UTC and the airlock was repressurized at 2233 UTC. At around 1918 UTC on June 14 the Shuttle RMS unberthed the Leonardo logistics module from Unity and put it back in the cargo bay, berthing it at 2011 UTC.